Welfare, training of staff forms part of my vision, priority – CMD FTH Gombe says

By Mohammed Kaka

Dr. Yusuf Mohammed Abdullahi, the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH) Gombe has disclosed that since assumption of office, training and retraining of staff have formed part his vision and priority.

Speaking to our Correspondent in an interview on Thursday, the CMD stated that staff development was among the important things he considered in his vision.

He expressed commitment towards ensuring that the hospital becomes a staff friendly one to all the patients.

The CMD said for both the patients, hospital management and the staff to be happy, the management of the hospital ensured that staff training and retraining takes centre stage.

“We are mindful of the welfare of our staff and at the same time finding a way of reducing the burden of work for them to avoid making them overworked in any way”, he said.

Dr. Yusuf said, upon assumption of office as CMD, he had a meeting with all the medical unions such as the JUHESU, the NMA, among other and drew a map after listening to all their challenges.

“One thing that I did was to include their leadership in the management, so whatever the management is discussing regarding any aspect of the hospital in terms of development, in terms of what we do and in terms of our challenges, they are already part of the decision making, that has really helped in moving this hospital forward”, the CMD disclosed.

Dr. Abdullahi further noted that the outstanding salary owed some of the staff from 2003, amounting to over 800 million were settled after his intervention.

“We sat down and we placed a very strong strategy on how to go about it and I promised them that gradually I will be forwarding this complain to the federal government in order to get the matter addressed and it has become a history now, the federal government has responded positively and were able to clear all the outstanding for the staff”, he said.

“The second aspect of my vision is, we were all involved, despite the limited resources, to have the strategy for training and retraining of our staff”, the CMD stated.

According to him, “in healthcare delivery, without training and retraining, we can not move forward, the world is moving too fast in terms of what to do to better health delivery”.

Dr. Abdullahi said the management of the hospital under his leadership have trained many of the staff despite paucity of funds.

He said, as a result of paucity of funds, the training and retraining of the staff were divided into many categories and the staff are very much happy with the program.

“We were also able to establish additional two departments, Community medicine and department of Family medicine which has also streamlined the work that we are doing in the hospital”, the CMD added.

Dr. Abdullahi who said that the hospital was able to secure accreditation for training of resident Doctors both for the community medicine and for the family medicine, added that accreditation status of the resident Doctors for the training of resident Doctors in the ENT department (Ear, Nose and Throat) unit of the hospital was also secured.

The CMD also said that the hospital was able to sustain and maintain all the accreditation processes of all the units in the hospital, including the laboratory, the surgery, obstetrics, among others.

He said a special request was forwarded to the Federal Government in terms of recruiting manpower for health, saying, as a result, the federal government has employed a number of nurses that are capable and have really helped in reducing the burden of overloading on some of the staff in the hospital.

“That has greatly increased efficiency and it also serve as a welfare to the staff of the hospital. Welfare is not all about money, it’s also about making the environment conducive for the staff and all the professionals to function effectively and that we have greatly achieved and in order to maintain and sustain”, he said.

He said in order to address the problem of japa syndrome, the hospital established schools in the hospital for the nurses, for the health information management, among others.

“This initiative has helped greatly in making the hospital to be hub for learning in keeping to the renewed hope agenda of Mr president that is been powered by the minister of health, Prof Mohammed Ali Pate”, Dr Abdullahi pointed out.

He said that the establishment of the electronic medical record has also made our staff to be very friendly because everything is now at their fingertips.

“There’s no stress in how to go about their work in terms of folder handling, in terms of missing documents and so many things”, he said.

Dr. Abdullahi who noted that the hospital has been expanded in the area of clinics, wards, renovations, added that the effort has made the staff to be very friendly and happy with the management of the hospital.

“We are really doing our best within the limited resources and as I said earlier, the union leaders are part of the management of the hospital”, he said.